The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Sunitha Rao in final

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Sunitha Rao in final

Special Correspondent

GREATER NOIDA: Sunitha Rao was at her fighting best as she survived two matchpoints to beat Margit Ruutel of Estonia in the semifinals of the ITF tennis tournament at the Jaypee Greens Sports Complex here on Friday.

Though she failed to drive home the advantage after having been in the drivers seat at 4-1 in the decider, Sunitha played with a high degree of intensity to deny the Estonian the luxury of serving out the match twice, at 5-4 and at 6-5.

In fact, the third-seeded Ruutel could manage only one point in those two service games when victory was handshaking distance away.

Into the tie-break, Ruutel served up two doublefaults to help Sunitha bridge the gap from 4-1, but the strongly-built Estonian was still good enough to buy herself two matchpoints at 6-4. However, Sunitha was stroking the ball without a trace of inhibition and was able to force two errors to put things on par. Ruutel then buried a return into the net to face matchpoint and Sunitha eked out another error from her opponent to seal it.

Her best

This was easily the best match that the 22-year-old Sunitha has played in a long time. This may not have been her best tennis, but this was easily the best she has fought. The secret of the US-based Sunithas success was her dancing feet that bore her to the ball all of the time in the energy-sapping exercise that lasted two hours 34 minutes and helped her stroke with matching authority against a high quality opponent who had beaten her the last time.

What was most commendable was Sunitha’s indomitable spirit, refusing to give up in the face of adversity. After a rousing start when she gained control despite dropping serve twice, and the manner in which she got up after being routed in the second set, Sunitha revealed nerves of steel.

Sunitha will be challenged by Latvian, Anastasija Sevastova who got past qualifier Vlada Ekshibarova of Uzbekistan.

The doubles title was bagged by Teodora Mircic of Serbia and Lenka Tvaroskova of Slovakia who missed three matchpoints in the second set tie-break before prevailing 10-6 in the super tie-break.

The results: Singles (semifinals): Anastasija Sevastova (Lat) bt Vlada Ekshibarova (Uzb) 7-6(5), 5-7, 6-4; Sunitha Rao bt Margit Ruutel (Est) 6-2, 2-6, 7-6(6). Doubles (final): Teodora Mircic (Srb) and Lenka Tvaroskova (Svk) bt Kelly Anderson and Chanelle Scheepers (RSA) 6-2, 6-7(7), 10-6.

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